Four big reasons behind our budget increase

Work on the 2013-14 Metro Schools operating budget has been going on for months. Department heads and officials from the district business office have been going through budgets line item-by-line item, looking at each expense and its purpose in fulfilling our mission.

A draft of the budget is ready and available for review online. It calls for $764 million in funding, an increase of nearly $44 million over this year.

What’s behind the increase?

Fixed & Unavoidable CostsAs is the case every year, certain cost increases are unavoidable. Salaries, insurance and pensions cost more. Utilities cost more. Just like in your family’s budget, inflation means it takes more money to provide the same services year over year.

Serving More StudentsOur student population is going up, too. We’re one of the very few urban districts in the country with increasing enrollment. That means more teachers, more support staff and more services provided to them.

New SchoolsThen there are the new schools opening up next year. We will add five new charter schools to our district, with an added cost of nearly $15 million attached to them, as well as the cost of planned enrollment increases at current charter schools. There’s a lot of debate about charter schools, but what isn’t debatable is the impact they have on the district budget. In 2013-14, $40 million will flow directly to 19 charter schools. Because there are no comparable offsets to district expenses at traditional schools, that means sizeable increases to our operating budget.

Vital Technology NeedsOur technology needs are more pressing now than in years past. Moving to the Common Core State Standards and the PARCC (Partnership for the Assessment of College and Career readiness) assessments means many students have to start taking tests online. This means our technology infrastructure must get the upgrades it needs. We need the computers and internet backbone to allow thousands of students to take these computerized tests simultaneously.

Those four items make up the bulk of the budget increase. There aren’t a lot of major new programs or initiatives included. But there are needs in our Nashville schools that cannot be met without added funds.

Join the Board of Education for a public hearing on this budget on Tuesday, April 2, at 5:00 p.m. in the Board Room.

I would like to hear what is being done to control and contain costs, such as insurance and pension costs, not just the reasons to add to them. What, if any, efficiencies have been gained? As an employee of a large company, I see the purchasing efforts and benefits changes that are made each year to keep expenses in check. Do more with less – it’s what all companies and households are doing. Maybe we could swallow some explainable increases if we felt efforts were being made to control and contain costs and spend the taxpayers’ money wisely.

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